


'Cause It's Easy Once You Know How It's Done (You Can't Stop Now, It's Already Begun)

by theprincesjester



Series: And I'm Never Gonna Dance Again (Guilty Feet Have Got No Rhythm) [2]
Category: Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, and i’ll admit that the geralt/jaskier is a bit more. implied at the end, it's a bit about how they met, there will Very Likely Be More to this, this is more of a prequel to the previous work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-10
Updated: 2020-02-10
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:47:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22638697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theprincesjester/pseuds/theprincesjester
Summary: Geralt and Yennefer are investigating a case that Calanthe and Eist can't seem to make much sense of.Jaskier and Merigold are in the right place at the right time.
Relationships: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia & Renfri | Shrike, Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia & Yennefer z Vengerbergu | Yennefer of Vengerberg, Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion, Jaskier | Dandelion & Renfri | Shrike, Jaskier | Dandelion & Triss Merigold, Jaskier | Dandelion & Yennefer z Vengerbergu | Yennefer of Vengerberg, Renfri | Shrike & Yennefer z Vengerbergu | Yennefer of Vengerberg
Series: And I'm Never Gonna Dance Again (Guilty Feet Have Got No Rhythm) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1628539
Kudos: 16





	'Cause It's Easy Once You Know How It's Done (You Can't Stop Now, It's Already Begun)

The man onstage took a deep breath before plunging into the saxophone solo, and Geralt almost cracked a smile at how _well_ the whole situation fit, really. He would’ve laughed at how almost **_cruel_ **it was. 

Beside him, his partner watched the stage, violet eyes scanning the area around it to check for possible threats. 

And then the man was singing, and Geralt let his eyes flick up to the stage, where blue eyes met his own with a certain mirth that he was almost… curious about. But just as quickly as they found him, they left, looking around the room at the rest of the patrons, and it felt like the song was over all too soon. Geralt watched as he turned behind himself, saying something to the drummer, who smiled, and they were both laughing. 

“Eist said that they have reason to believe it’ll probably happen later, rather than sooner,” Yennefer whispered from next to him. He nodded. 

“So we should expect to be here a while?” 

She shrugged. “Long enough for you to finish the show.” 

Geralt only nodded, letting his eyes roam, raking through the crowd once more. 

“Calanthe also said that Ciri says hello and to be careful,” Yennefer muttered, flagging down the bartender. Geralt flashes a smile when he recognises who it is. 

“Everything alright?” Renfri’s voice is low enough that people can’t butt into the conversation but loud enough for Yennefer and Geralt to both hear her, and they nod. 

“It should be,” Yennefer answers the question for the both of them, and stops, thinking for a moment. “Who’s performing, tonight?” 

“Him? That’s Jaskier, he’s still fairly new, but he’s… decent,” Renfri nods, sliding two glasses over to the both of them. “The people seem to like him well enough, so I can’t complain.” 

Geralt raises his head. “When did he get here?” 

And Renfri looks as if she’s racking her brain for something, trying to do mental math to figure out just how long it had been. “Couple weeks, about a month, maybe? Him and his band, both, they came about a month or so ago, I’d say. Didn’t _really_ start playing until they’d been here for about a week, though.” 

Geralt grunted, doing a bit of mental math himself as he tried to remember exactly what Calanthe had said about the start of the whole situation. 

\-- 

_“Alright, Geralt, Yennefer. This is… we’re still not completely sure exactly what’s going on. Possible gang activity,” Calanthe had leaned forward in her chair as she had said it, and Eist had nodded, arms crossed over his chest as he leaned against the desk._

_“It shouldn’t be too terribly much, really, from what we can tell so far. There’s been reports of people getting injured around…” he paused to circle something on the map that had been laid out on Calanthe’s desk, and Geralt and Yennefer had both leaned forward to get a better look at it. “This area. No murders, yet, which leads us to believe that things haven’t gotten to be too serious, and if we can stop it before it gets to that point, then all the better for everyone else.” And Eist had leaned back against the desk again, capping his marker crossing his arms._

_“And when did all of this start?” Yennefer looked up, tearing her gaze from the map. Eist shrugged, turning to look back at his wife, who sighed._

_“From what we know so far, it was likely… about four weeks ago,”_

_“And why haven’t we done anything yet?” Geralt’s voice was low when he asked the question, and Eist held up a hand._

_“We couldn’t do anything about it, we didn’t know anything. Someone just recently reported it, said something about hearing something in the alley,”_

_“And no one considered that maybe, someone was--”_

_“We already asked if they thought it was something like that. Poor kid looked terrified and said that they were almost positive it wasn’t,”_

_“Tonight, we’re sending you to…” Calanthe pointed at a building on the map, right near where Eist had circled, and Geralt nodded. “Renfri still works there, so she should be able to provide at least a bit of safety, if you must need it.”_

_And Geralt and Yennefer had left not too long after that, leaving Ciri with her grandparents as they went to investigate._

_\--_

“I think that we should just count ourselves lucky that this isn’t a murder case,” Yennefer seemed to have connected the dots quicker than Geralt had. “If it does turn out that he’s… been doing something, then at least we don’t have to worry about that.” 

Geralt shrugged, the movement almost heavy. “It could quickly become one.” 

“Do you think he could be connected to it?” Renfri’s eyes flicked up to the stage, watching Jaskier, who caught her eye and gave a wide, bright smile. 

“I don’t know,” Geralt admitted. “There’s a chance, though. It would fit.” 

And Renfri nodded. “Alright, well… I have to get back to work. Good luck.” 

Geralt nodded, and took a drink from his cup before sighing. He let his eyes flicker to the stage again, and shook his head, almost smiling when he saw the man--Jaskier, he mentally corrected himself--standing with a guitar, the instrument held almost low as he looked down at it, all attention turned to it as he started a familiar song. 

“This one,” he began, barely raising his head as he went to the microphone. “This one is for a certain person. You know who you are.” And then they were launching into _Eye of the Tiger_ , and Geralt shook his head. Yennefer laughed a little, nudging Geralt. 

“It’s almost as if he knows we’re here,” she said. 

Geralt nodded. “I’m pretty sure he _does_ know.” 

“How convinced of his innocence are you?” 

Geralt looked at her, golden eyes meeting violet as he considered. “Not enough.” he eventually decided, before turning his attention back to the stage. Jaskier’s gaze found him again, and he winked, and Geralt sighed. “First…” 

“First _Careless Whisper_ , and now this,” Yennefer agreed. 

Once the song was over, Jaskier took a step back and turned around to talk with the drummer again, adjusting a microphone in front of her before turning back around. 

“For the next one, I’m going to let my good friend Merigold do a bit more, if that’s alright with the lot of you. You’re in more than capable hands,” and he smiled before checking the tuning on his guitar. He looked back to the drummer--Merigold--and said something, then nodded when she answered. 

It started with the drums, and then Jaskier started to speak. “ _If you see a faded sign by the side of the road that says ‘fifteen miles to the--_ ’” and he let himself get cut off as Merigold took the song over, adding his guitar into the mix and tossing his head back as he laughed.

“ _I’m headin’ down the Atlanta highway, lookin’ for the love getaway, headed for the love getaway_ ,” 

And Jaskier took over again, winking. “ _I got me a car as big as a whale…_ ” 

As the song progressed, he bopped around the stage, ending next to Triss and breathing heavily. 

“He seems to be enjoying himself,” Yennefer notes, nudging Geralt, who was still very obviously staring at the stage. Renfri nodded from where she was leaned against the counter. 

“He does, he really enjoys it. Sometimes he comes and helps at the bar, or with tables, I’ve tried to hire the kid but he says he’s happy as he is,” she shrugged. 

Jaskier turned to Triss, discussing something with her again before he puts his guitar down and picks up another smaller one that Geralt recognises to be a violin. 

Or something of the like. 

And Jaskier returns to the microphone. “Alright, so now I’m really going to pass it off to her, so be nice.” and then he closes his eyes and lifts the instrument to his chin and begins to play the introduction, the rest of the band joining not too far in. 

“ _Poor old Johnnie Ray sounded sad on the radio, moved a million hearts in mono--our mothers cried, sang along, who’d blame them?_ ” Triss sang, still on her drums, not even batting an eye as Jaskier made his way to the stairs to get off of the stage. 

Renfri raised an eyebrow. “Something must’ve gotten his attention.” she looked to Geralt but let her words only go implied. Yennefer smirked at him, watching as Jaskier set the instrument down into what could be assumed was the instrument’s case and then made his way to the trio, eyes never leaving them even as he stole a drink off of a table. He stopped right in front of Geralt. 

“I love the way you just sit there and… are you brooding?” 

Geralt grunted, and Jaskier only shrugged. 

“Well, see, I know what everyone else thought of my band and I except for you. So?” 

Geralt tore his eyes away, taking another drink from the cup Renfri had slid over, barely paying any attention as she made another cup for Jaskier. 

“Come on, Geralt, at least humor him,” Yennefer nudged him again. Jaskier nodded. 

“You should listen to her. C’mon, three words or less?” 

Geralt shifted, just barely turning to look at the musician. “I think you’re playing into what you may call your ‘tropes’ too much.” Jaskier visibly brightened, taking a seat next to Geralt and accepting the drink Renfri slid over to him. 

“Hm… let’s see. Broody type, friends with Renfri, could probably murder someone, _Careless Whisper_ … are you a detective?” and his eyes were full of mirth as he asked it. Geralt snorted. 

“Yeah. What brought you to that conclusion?” 

Yennefer tapped him. “Probably the fact that, you know, Renfri probably told him.” 

Jaskier nodded. “Alright, yeah, that has a bit to do with it, but she wouldn’t tell me much. Don’t worry, I didn’t, like, tell anyone that you were here or anything.” he admitted. “But, uh… if you need any help, I can try? Or! Or I could follow you guys around, finally get something worth reading, or listening to, or _something_.” 

Geralt shook his head. “You are both a civilian and someone we aren’t sure we can trust.” and Jaskier looked almost offended at the suggestion. 

“I dunno, I kind of like this one,” Yennefer shrugged, bumping her fist against the one Jaskier offered when he spoke. 

“C’mon, you wouldn’t keep a man with bread in his pants waiting, would you?” Jaskier looks at Geralt when he says it, intending to get an answer as quickly as possible. 

“Jaskier… what the fuck?” Renfri is giving him this odd, just-barely affectionate look as she asks. Jaskier shrugs. 

“Do you really think that I think before I do things?” and then he pulls an honest to god roll out of his pocket and begins to eat it, Geralt and Yennefer both just _watching_ , Renfri shrugging and turning to continue with her work as if this was _normal_. 

Geralt would’ve almost been in awe, he thought. 

“Well?” Jaskier prompts again. And the song changes, into a recognisable tune. Jaskier’s head whips up to look at the stage, glaring. “She knows I like doing this one!” 

“ _Sometimes I feel I’ve got to--_ ” **BUM BUM** “ _\--run away,_ ” Triss is singing, and Jaskier looks almost offended. Then he turns back to Geralt, almost as if prompting him to answer. 

“Hm,” was all Geralt offered. 

“C’mon, he could help us,” Yennefer offered. Renfri nodded. 

“She has a good point. He, at the very least, has connections that might help,” 

And Geralt sighed. “Fine.” 

Jaskier jumped up, nodding. “Yes! Thank you. Is it alright if Triss helps, too?” 

Geralt finds himself almost regretting his decision. 

And then the song is changing, and Jaskier is more excited than perhaps he should be. Eventually, he does sit down again, and he winks at Geralt when he looks over at him. 

“ _Wind me up, put me down, start me off and watch me go_ ,” Triss is singing again, and Jaskier raises an eyebrow. Geralt is almost sure he can see an unasked question there, and tries to catch himself on the counter when he feels Yennefer push him towards the musician, just barely. And then Jaskier takes his hand, and they’re making their way out of the building, and Jaskier is humming along with the music, singing certain fragments. 

“‘ _Cause it’s easy, once you know how it’s done--you can’t stop now, it’s already begun_ ,” Jaskier is half humming half singing it as he leads Geralt into the hotel lobby, then turns to him. “So, tell me about the case you’re working on?” 

Geralt sighs before nodding. “Once we’re in there.”


End file.
